Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I use this WordPress Installer?

It's simple. Open Cloud Sites, click on the Cloud Sites product link on the left nav bar, then click Add Site and follow the instructions. This installation will install WordPress on the root domain of your website. The installation may take up to 15 minutes for installation and DNS propagation.

2. Does this installer work on previously created sites?

No, not at this time. The installer is only for new site creation at this time. We are evaluating what would be required for implementing this on existing sites, but at this point we do not have a method that would not potentially overwrite or jeopardize content that already exists on the customers site. Since we do not want to be held responsible for overwriting content, we have chosen to limit this to new site adds only at this time.

If desired, customers can delete an existing site, recreate it, and use the CMS installer, but note that all database, email and other site content will be erased and will need to be set up again.

3. Can I select the technology that this installs on?

The CMS is setup to install only on PHP 5.3 and deploys a MySQL 5.1 database. You cannot select an alternate technology for this installation. You are able to perform manual installations on other technologies, but this 1-click installer defaults only to PHP 5.3.

4. Does this installer automatically update the version of WordPress automatically?

No, Cloud Sites does not automatically update your version of WordPress as the product is not a CMS management utility. However, version updates are very simple in the WordPress management dashboard. Click updates and you will see if a new version is available. If so, click install and it is performed for you. You are strongly urged to stay up to date on the version of WordPress as older versions are easily compromised, so please keep your version up to date for the most secure site.

5. Can I select the sub-directory or sub-domain where this is installed?

No, not at this time, but we are considering enabling that in the future.

6. Test link support - I just installed Wordpress using the one-click installer and my Test Link displays the new install unformatted, did the installer fail?

No, the installer most likely completed and installed Wordpress just fine. The reason the test link is not displaying the site correctly is due to the fact that the one-click installer uses the actual URL for the Wordpress installation. Since Wordpress stores the site URL into the database you can only visit the site from the actual site URL. There are two ways to overcome this for testing purposes.

If you have already pointed your DNS to Cloud Sites you can simply visit the actual site URL and the site should display and function correctly.

The recommended method for dealing with this issue is to edit your local computer's hosts file so that your local computer will display the site using the Cloud Sites IP address. This process will be different depending on whether your local computer is a Windows, Linux, or Mac computer. See: How do I modify my hosts file?

Lastly, if you haven't already setup your DNS to point to Cloud Sites and you are not able to modify your local hosts file, you can modify the Wordpress installation so that the Test Link is the URL used by Wordpress. See: Changing The Site URL (Wordpress Codex)

7. Does this installer work for all web browsers?

This has been tested and is functional for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. We are now testing IE and expect to have clarity on this in the very near future.

8. How do I perform a manual installation of WordPress on an existing site?